UPDATED: Where Yorkshire Building Society is closing its branches and what it means for customers

More than 400 jobs are under threat as a result of the move, which forms part of a wider restructure that will see its Norwich & Peterborough brand it owns vanish from the high street.

Some 100,000 Norwich & Peterborough current account holders will see their facility closed under the move.

The society said 440 jobs were at risk as part of the overhaul, but added it hopes to redeploy some staff affected to other areas.

In Yorkshire, branches in Wyke in Bradford, Waterloo in Huddersfield, Farsley in Leeds and Mirfield near Huddersfield will all close by the summer.

Of the closures nationally, 20 will be Yorkshire Building Society branches with the remaining 28 being Norwich & Peterborough.

The remaining N&P branches will be rebranded under the Yorkshire Building Society brand.

It said it would maintain a high street network of 260 branches and agencies across the UK.

The closures comes in the same week that similar announcements were made by Yorkshire Bank, which is axing 19 Yorkshire branches, and HSBC.

Yorkshire - which boasts 3.3m customers across the United Kingdom - said it will work with affected customers to outline the proposals and how it will impact them.

Mike Regnier, Chief Executive of Yorkshire Building Society, said: “As a mutual, it is important that we always act in the best long-term interests of our membership and evolve the business in line with their changing needs. We believe these proposals give us greater focus on providing existing and future members with the things they want from us most: a safe place for their savings and funding to buy their own home, and providing these in an easy and simple way.

“We continually review all areas of the business to ensure we remain focused on what our members require while utilising their money as effectively as possible. This means we must sometimes make adjustments to the way the business operates.

“We remain fully committed to providing the face-to- face service that many of our members value and are planning to maintain a strong and sustainable national branch network.

“The driving forces behind the proposed branch closures are shifts in market conditions and an increasing desire among customers to transact digitally rather than on the high street. We therefore no longer believe it is the right commercial position for us to continue to maintain these 48 branches across the N&P and Yorkshire network.

“The changing landscape of the current account market means continuing to provide this service and extend it to new customers would require a significant increase in ourinvestment in this part of the business. Although we understand the proposal may be disappointing to current account customers, it follows thorough research and assessment.

“We believe the level of investment required would not represent good long-term value for the wider membership.

“The Norwich & Peterborough brand has been part of Yorkshire Building Society since 2011, and inevitably, some of our colleagues and members will be disappointed by these proposals.

“These proposals would help us achieve that aim and further reinforce Yorkshire’s position as one of the most trusted financial services providers in the UK.”

The closures from the group - the second biggest building society after Nationwide - are the latest it has carried out following the announcement last year it would axe 22 branches and mothball the Barnsley Building Society and Chelsea Building Society names.

Yorkshire has grown by expansion amid a wave of consolidation in the sector since the financial crisis, merging with Barnsley Building Society in 2008, Chelsea Building Society in April 2010 and then N&P in 2011.

The group committed to retaining all of the mutual’s branches for at least two years when it took over the mutual.

At the time, N&P was the ninth largest society and employed just over 800 staff.